NBA fines Rivers $25K for criticizing officials

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - The NBA fined Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers $25,000 for criticizing the officials following Tuesday's 105-104 playoff loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Rivers was irate during the postgame press conference after he felt the officials were trying to make up for a non-foul call during a replay to determine who last touched the ball when it went out of bounds late in the game.

"Everybody knows it was our ball. I think the bottom line is they thought it was a foul and made up for it," said Rivers. "We got robbed."

He continued.

"We did a lot of stuff ourselves to lose the game," Rivers said, "but at the end of the day, we have a replay system to look at plays. And I don't want to hear they didn't have (a good enough) replay. That's a bunch of crap and you know it."

Rivers was so sure the call would go his team's way, he was already drawing up an inbounds play.

"That could be a series-defining call," he said, "and that's not right."